Jeff Bingaman: interpretati and application situations. thank you. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico is recognized. a senator: mr. president, i have five -- five amendments that i'm -- i would like to speak briefly about that i will not

Jeff Bingaman: call up at this point. i was advised they're still trying to see if there's any objection to these being called up. mr. bingaman: i would still like to discuss them and explain to people why i would like to see these amendments adopted. the first amendment i would like to discuss is amendment 7249

Jeff Bingaman: related to bart beetles. mr. president, this is a serious problem that all of us in the west have observed. this amendment is cosponsored by senator murkowski, who's a ranking member on our energy and natural resources committee;

Jeff Bingaman: senar udall of colorado; and senator bennet of colorado. and we, of course, are looking for additional cosponsors. the amendment addresses an important issue we have in the forest in the west. bart beetles affected some 6.5 million acres of the forest. the epidemic resulted in a serious situation where dead

Jeff Bingaman: trees are falling on roads and on trails and on camp grounds and on utility lines and other infrastructure posing a substantial risk of personal injury or death or property damage. the forest service and the national park service already have had to redirect tens of millions of dollars of funding that were appropriated for other

Jeff Bingaman: priorities in order to remove trees that were killed by bart beetles. the amendment that i'm proposing provides $50 million to help address the under the budgeted needs of the forest service and the national park service to remove bart beetle-killed trees around roads, trails, and camp

Jeff Bingaman: grounds and utility lines to protect public health and safety. while the bart beetle epidemic has most significantly affected the forest and agency budgets in the central and northern rockies, the need to redirect funds to address these needs has an adverse affect on other

Jeff Bingaman: projects around the country. the amendment that i've been discussing is fully paid for. as mentioned before, senator udall of colorado, has been a strong advocate for doing this work, has cosnsored this amendment, as have senators murkowski and bennet of colorado, senators johnson and

Jeff Bingaman: baucus have also advocated for emergency funding for this work, an i hope that we can quickly get approval to go ahead and call this up so it c be considered as part of this legislation. the next amendment i wanted to discuss briefly is number 4266, regarding coast guard funding.

Jeff Bingaman: mr. president, this amendment looks around the corner, or beyo the horizon a little bit, at a problem that is likely to hit us in the future. under the oil pollution act, if b.p. denies a claim for damages associated with the deepwater horizon disaster, the rejected claimant has t right to file a

Jeff Bingaman: claim with the federal government through the national pollution fund center. and i can see a virtual inevitability that this will occur and perhaps occur reasonably soon. then the national pollution fund center could find itself swamped with claims. they do not have adequate funds

Jeff Bingaman: in their annual appropriations to deal with it. the amendment simply allows them for this one incident to address further -- to access further appropriations for these administrative costs. and i think it's a prudent thing for us to do in light of what may well transpire in the -- in

Jeff Bingaman: the recently near future. a third amendment i wanted to talk about deals with the abandoned mine lands legislation that we have on the books. i would add senator bunning as a cosponsor on this. it's amendment number 4187. mr. president, this amendment

Jeff Bingaman: would clarify tt certain funds provided to the states under the abandoned mine lands program administered by the department of interior could be used for two purposes. number one for high priority noncoal reclamation as well as coal wrec reclamation. and, second, for state set aside

Jeff Bingaman: programs for the remediaton of acid mine drainage. the funds involved are those that have accrued to the states under the formula in the surface mining control and reclamation act but had not been previously appropriated. use of these funds for noncoal reclamation and acid mine drainage had been allowed prior

Jeff Bingaman: to amendments made by the tax relief and health care act of 2006, and there was no intent at that time to change that result. however, in 2007, the solicitor in the department of interior interpreted the amendments that?? we adopted in 2006, as limiting the ability of states to use

Jeff Bingaman: these funds under the abandoned mine lands program for the purposes with respect to the use of funds for noncoal reclamation while activities on noncoal sites have consumed a relatively insignificant portion of the funding provided for the overall a.m.l. program use of targeted

Jeff Bingaman: funds for high-priority noncoal abandoned mines in the west is essential in terms of public health and safety. with respect to the use of funds for acid mine drainage, allowing the funds to, again, be used for state seta side programs for remediaton of acid mine drainage has considerable benefits in terms of the environment and

Jeff Bingaman: water quality, particularly in appalachian states such as kentucky and pennsylvania and west virginia. this amendment does not score. it does not incase any funding to the states or to the tribes. it simply clarifies that states have the flexibility to use a.m.l. fund for these two uses

Jeff Bingaman: as was the case prior to the 2006 amendments and at the appropriate time i will offer that amendment as well. let me discuss one other amendment here -- i have two other amendments i want to discuss. the first is amendment 4267, which is an amendment i've offered that contains a number

Jeff Bingaman: of process improvements to help the department of energy loan guarantee program to operate more efficiently and effectively. senator murkowskind senator shaheen are cosponsors of the amendment. the amendment does six important things. number one, it provides the flexibility to allow applicants to pay a portion of the credit

Jeff Bingaman: subsidy cost in concert with the use of appropriations for other parts of the cost. this feature will allow us to make more effective use of the appropriations that are provided to the program. the second thing it does, it drops the requirement for expensive third-party credit reports in cases whe the projects are small and are being

Jeff Bingaman: proposed by startup firms, which generally do not have a credit rating. the department would treat these firms as having the lowest credit rating, which is what artup firms without a balance sheet generally have in any case. the third thing this amendment would do, it provides enhanced hiring authorities for the

Jeff Bingaman: department of energy loan guarantee office and for professional advisers to help analyze projects being proposed for support through the program and the related advanced vehicle technology loan guarantee program. the fourth part of this amendment fixes a glitch in the department of energy's rules for

Jeff Bingaman: the loan guarantee program that prevents a project being guaranteed from being located on more than one site. the fifth aspect of this amendment is that the amendment also removes a requirement that keeps an applicant from submitting more than one application to the program.

Jeff Bingaman: and the final thing that this amendment does, it allows the loan guarantee appropriation made as part of the recovery act to be used for energy efficiency projects in addition to renewable energy and electricity transmission projects. these proposed changes have substantial bipartisan and bicameral support. they do not add to the score of

Jeff Bingaman: this bill. they will greatly help move the loan guarantee program forward and i urge they be adopted as part of this amendment. and the final amendment i wanted to speak briefly about is amendment 4268.

Jeff Bingaman: mr. president, the amendment, 4268, contains an important process impvement to help the department of energy loan guarantee program to operate more efficiently and effectively. what it does is it sets a 30-day limit for dealing with or reviewing loan guarantee applications by the office of management and budget once they

Jeff Bingaman: are approved for conditional commitments by the department of energy. the time consumed by o.m.b. reviews and the delays that -- that this has engendered in the program have been a substantial impediment to the effective functioning of the program. this amendment would provide for a much greater degree of certainty and clarity in the

Jeff Bingaman: operation of the program. again, i am pleased to have senator murkowski as a cosponsor of the amendment. i hope we can adopt it as part of this legislation. mr. president, i will wait until i'm advised by the floor appropriate to call these amendments up, and at that time i would hope to be able to do